NOISE POLICY DEVELOPMENTS IN WALES

Noise, soundscape, air quality and other previously siloed areas of devolved policy now sit, not in a vacuum, but within the overarching sustainable development framework set by the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 (“the WFG Act”)1 . Since Acoustics 2018, the Welsh Government has adopted a new five-year Noise and Soundscape Action Plan2 as the Welsh public sector’s central noise policy document. The Welsh Government has also issued Planning Policy Wales3 (PPW) edition 10, which completely reframes national planning policy in Wales in line with Well-being of Future Generations principles. The Welsh Government is committed to providing further policy guidance and technical advice to support the new planning policy in PPW relating to air quality and soundscape. This will be achieved through a review of the current Technical Advice Note (TAN) 11: Noise and the production, currently under way, of a new, replacement TAN11 covering air quality, noise and soundscape.